negotiation – renegotiation … reception – deception

Each word was written on a separate walls of a room in Artspace, a public art gallery in Auckland.

It challenged me to renegotiate my ideas of the modern art I was viewing. And though we do have a personal preference and don’t want to be deceived by the art world dictating what is acceptable or not to our own sensibilities, I was aiming to let the art renegotiate my visual perceptions. One man on the tour made a comment to me as he passed by one painting – “can’t see the point of it”. I know this is a simplistic response from me, but I hoped it wasn’t a ‘no I won’t be receptive to anything it may offer, and I am not prepared to renegotiate my attitudes to what I expect from art’.

It won’t surprise you to know I feel a bit desperate sometimes to find ways of helping people to renegotiate the treadmill they are on in their busy lives as they try to achieve more in less time.
I have seen that ‘it is hell to turn a treadmill down’ as busyness can become a deception when it gets tied into productivity. It takes courage to step off the treadmill regularly and activate the parasympathetic nervous systems through Rest. Yet this is a powerful way to improve our immune, digestive and reproductive systems, our creativity, relationships and spirituality. And we can achieve a far greater sense of satisfaction with what we could accomplish in the big picture of life.